Empathy in Psychopaths

Andy McNab, a former SAS soldier, author, and psychopath, claims that being a psychopath is advantageous. His book in 1993, Bravo Two Zero, discusses his life as a soldier in military. He says having no empathy in the field of business is beneficial mentally for staff and will make the production value higher. The concept of empathy is examined in James Fallon’s book, The Psychopath Inside: A neuroscientist’s personal journey into the dark side of the brain, in which Fallon discovered his brain to be highly similar to those of psychopathic killers.

McNab’s idea of success in business world and empathy has a direct correlation since the employees with empathy are hesitant to refute a proposal and will have a high emotional toll outside of work. Being ruthless with no remorse is key to success in business and military as well. In the military, there is a pressure for one to be neutral, with absolutely no emotion, in the situation since the lives of the people around are in jeopardy. Killing the enemy should provide one with no remorse because the next performance will be of emotion, repentance, and error. It is priority to stay alive to save others. MnNab describes psychopath as people that are skillful at carrying out the most abhorrent crimes, without any feeling of regret. He believes that a non-extreme psychopath lives inside everyone. People are in a range from mild to extreme.

James Fallon’s explanation of empathy refers to one’s emotional reactivity to another individual person. He discovered that it is hard for him and other psychopaths to have normal interpersonal relationships due to the lack of empathy. He is using his colleagues and family to make his life more entertaining rather than actually caring for them. This is due to the loss of activity in the orbital cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and damage in insula. McNab is looking for this kind of empathy to explain the success behind business.

Keep in mind that McNab is not promoting psychopathic employees at workplace. He is just providing a pathway to see how the brains of psychopath and others work. Helping individuals to figure out what is going on in their brain is the best way to increase productivity and capita.

Fallon, J. (2013) The Psychopath Inside. New York, New York: Penguin Group.

Santos Nina. 2015, May. Does being a psychopath make you more successful? CNN. Retrieved February 25, 2015 from http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/29/business/psychopath-andy-mcnab/index.html#em4